The present invention relates to an actuating device for a disk brake. There are two brake shoes at opposite sides of the brake disk which are moved axially into contact with the disk for braking. The actuating device is in the form of cooperating brake caliper halves each for operating on a respective brake shoe to move it against one of the opposite sides of a rotatable brake disk. The brake caliper halves are operated upon by a common actuator, which has respective actuating elements which engage each brake caliper half and move the brake caliper halves to move the brake shoes. Those actuating elements are on an actuator basis. A plane between the actuator axis and the axis of rotation of the brake disk is defined as a central plane of the brake.
Each brake caliper half is comprised of a plurality of levers one above the other. All of the levers of both brake caliper halves are supported on one or more mounting pins about which the levers pivot.
One known device of this type, shown in Federal Republic of Germany Pat. No. 30 11 006, which corresponds to British Pat. No. 2,054,072, advantageously has the two brake calipers halves mounted on a common central mounting pin. As a result, the pin is stressed predominantly only in shear and only to a slight extent in flexure. The manufacture of the two brake caliper halves is facilitated by the fact that they are identical, but it is made difficult because of their relatively complicated shape. This makes it necessary to manufacture the brake caliper halves preferably by casting or welding, as necessary.
Actuating devices in which the two brake caliper halves are identical and are mounted on a common central mounting pin are also known from British Pat. No. 1,494,730 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,849. U.S. Pat. No. 2,827,132 describes an actuating device in which the two brake caliper halves are mounted on a common central mounting pin, but have different dimensions.
Federal Republic of Germany DE-OS No. 33 08 499, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,663, shows a different construction in which each of the two brake caliper halves is mounted on a separate mounting pin, requiring two separate mounting pins. These are furthermore stressed predominantly in flexure. Each brake caliper half is formed of two identical, relatively simply shaped levers and of two connecting pins arranged on the ends of the levers. This facilitates the manufacture of the brake caliper halves. But, it has the serious disadvantage that two separate mounting pins are necessary for the mounting of the brake caliper halves. This construction is similar to the construction in Federal Republic of Germany Provisional Pat. No. AS 17 25 038, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 3,520,386.